REVIEW: NIKE NIGHT SURF AT FISTRAL BEACH, NEWQUAY (JULY 8-9, 2011)
Nike 6.0 took over Fistral Beach with world class surfers and music ranging from local talent to LA’s Florence and The Machine support act, Hanni El Khatib, reggae Bob Marley style jammin to beet boxing threesomes that was AlBenAza, house DJ beats to recorder playing ska vibes. The beach, the bar and the sea didn’t know what had hit it, but it sure was good! The famous Night Surf has been pulling in crowds for years but with Nike taking the rains of the event this year it was in a league of its own. The stage alone was nothing Fistral had ever seen before, let alone the line up that Tidal Productions had organised.
Friday saw Will Giles open the music floodgates with an upbeat DJ set which finally welcomed the sun to the beach before Ant Durkin warmed up the stage for the locally renowned Sandfire Siren. The four piece have recently been supporting the big boys such as Reef and Pendulum so it was no surprise when they up’ed their game for Nike and delivered as the first live act of the night Covering Chase and Status and Pendulum fulfilling their aim of producing club sounding music as a live band. Amazing. Was very impressed. Black Friday were soon to follow suit, giving their faithful followers the show they are used to. The six piece brought a folk, punk element to the beach that clearly made everyone find it hard to stand still too! As the tide came in the crowds moved from the beach to the bar where Adski had been warming up for Will Streetwise’s breakbeat, dubstep filled dance floor. 3am loomed and the party drew to a temporary sleep needed break.
The sun was out and the weekend was well and truly in full flow when Tim Nice took to the stage with a progressive house, banging electro set from midday. Bruno Ranking and the Flow brought the beach vibes in the early evening with Bob Marley covers and a real reggae performance. Matt Orr’s minimal techno set followed and led nicely into the beat boxing trio of AlBenAza who played the best sunset set I’ve seen in a long time! The boys loved it and we could barely keep Ben off the organ in the granny chic VIP band area. Will Streetwise and his new best friend in the form of a film camera on a stick kept the ever growing crowds on the beach entertained whilst we welcomed Hanni El Khatib to the beach, all the way from San Francisco we were more than excited to see the boys on our little old Fistral beach. They played an amazing set and you could tell they definitely appreciated the fact they were playing in such an amazing setting as the sun hit the horizon.
The music and atmosphere was insane but we can’t forget the reason for the whole event, the surfers. Before the fireworks gave us the classic ‘ooh aaah’ moment the presentation was held on stage and champagne was a spraying. With Newquay legend Russell Winter winning the mens open, Amy Stewart doing it for the ladies, Reubyn Ash winning the Cash For Tricks and Ben Skinner landing an air on a Longboard to take the Longboard title. It was after party time! Eatbeats had been warming up for Ant Durkin and Robin Paris (Silent Disco legends) to smash it up, which they well and truly did until 4am!
It exhausts me just thinking about the packed weekend, but what an event! All I can say is roll on next year. Nike you did us proud.
Words and photo: Harriet Frost
